A Nonreimbursable Space Act Agreement signed by NASA and US Airways
May 17, 2013
The Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA)
NASA and US Airways have signed a Nonreimbursable Space Act Agreement (NRSAA) to jointly build and test a prototype decision-support tool (DST) for ramp operators at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) (Charlotte, North Carolina). The automation will assist ramp operators by providing an optimal push back schedule for departure aircraft in the presence of uncertainties, and thus, improve efficiency of traffic on the airport surface.
NASA has developed SARDA (Spot and Runway Departure Advisor), an innovative technology for optimal surface traffic sequencing. SARDA provides a collaborative DST for airline operators and tower controllers to enhance surface traffic efficiency by reducing delays in departure queues. The core components of the SARDA tool, consisting of the scheduling algorithm, taxi prediction algorithm, and interfaces with both the Air Traffic Control (ATC) and airline, have shown great promise in reducing ground traffic congestion through human-in-the-loop simulations. Under this Agreement, SARDA functions will be adapted to CLT operations, and NASA and US Airways will jointly develop a customized SARDA User Interface. If this development effort is successful, US Airways could benefit by saving direct operational costs through reduction of taxi delays and fuel usage. The airline may also gain better connection of passengers and baggage, with more predictable service times for departing flights. Benefits are also anticipated for the Federal Aviation Administration through enhanced efficiency and predictability of surface operations, which in turn is expected to improve the efficiency and predictability of the National Airspace System. (POC: Yoon Jung)
Scaled-Down Robot Model Data Collection and Analysis of Aircraft Ramp Area Maneuvers
May 17, 2013
Aircraft maneuvers inside the airport ramp area are frequently not confined to well-defined route segments and are subject to uncertainties due to the many different parties responsible for aircraft and gate operations. Detailed high-resolution data about aircraft maneuvers in the ramp area are not currently available. NASA is collaborating with the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) to research the structure of surface traffic conflicts and their resolutions by using E-puck robots. The goal of this research is to develop a stochastic control theory-based algorithm for gate pushback control under the presence of arrival and departure uncertainties. The UCSC researchers have matched their robot kinematics to the kinematics of a B747-400. The human operator “pilot” drives the E-puck, which moves as if it were an aircraft. The maneuvers are recorded by a video camera. These records are used to compute time intervals and maneuver types for aircraft push-backs that provide maximum flexibility for ramp area operations meeting a specified ramp area exit schedule.
The data collected so far include arrival and departure trajectories modeled for the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) Terminal C ramp area, as well as selected departure trajectories for ramp areas of Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT). The analysis of the DFW data provides an insight into spatio-temporal conflicts among aircraft, as well as their structure with respect to aircraft push-back times. It is anticipated that the results will be integrated with the Spot and Runway Departure Advisor (SARDA) research to help the implementation to a specific airport ramp area, and which may someday be applied to a broader selection of airport ramp area layouts. (POC: Waqar Malik)
Fig.1 Ramp area scheduling problem: the aircraft are parked at gates A, B and C, and scheduled to be at the taxiway spot at a given time. Trajectories 1 and 4 represent trajectories of the aircraft parked at gates A and C, respectively; 2 and 3 represent the trajectories of the aircraft parked at gate B, which can push back to the right (BR), or to the left (BL), respectively.
Fig. 2 A fraction of experimentally recorded trajectories in a layout of the scaled-down ramp area and an E-puck robot